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We went to Picture People to have our family portrait taken last weekend. It took me til this long just to get over it enough so I could write about it. It was so much fun I almost started day drinking. Dave and I didn’t talk to each other for an hour after we got home. Talk about successful! I was envisioning Walter enjoying posing for photos with his loving parents. Instead, he screamed and ran around. I guess I forgot he was a 2 year old.

We are still waiting on Walter to start talking. I have dreams at night where he and I have conversations (or at least ones that I can understand what he’s saying). It can be difficult to have a child that doesn’t fall into the “correct” timeline for something, but since we are not worried about developmental delays (except this one), and we are blessed with his good health, this is not that big a deal. I hope. He pretty much understands everything we say but only wants to speak Walter-ese, not English, though I feel like I hear words among all the gibberish sometimes.

Most of the time, however, this is how things go these days in our house:

I don’t even get how he knows how to say (and use) “what is this” but won’t repeat anything I ask him to say… oh well. I’ve heard so many stories about kids talking after they are two (or even close to three). It’s hard to know what’s going on with him when he’d rather screech than say “Mama help!” Maybe we’ll just go see what a speech therapist has to say about it so I can quit worrying.

I was talking to my friend about our pantry renovation, and her response was, “You know you’ve made it in the world when you’re redoing your pantry”. Made me wonder if I should be spending that money on travel instead! But I didn’t. And now my pantry makes me feel like a queen when I do laundry (which is a lot).

Even Walter knows that linoleum isn’t classy.

So our handyman Bruce cut and laid the tile (after putting in backer board), and we grouted it. Next time we might try our hand at the tile saw too. Though that sounds like I want to cut my hands off with a tile saw.

I have always hated these wire shelves. They are cheap and everything falls over on them.

So we ripped them out.

And David cut lots of boards. We used 1x2s to frame the MDF shelves (3/4″ thick), and 1x3s behind the L-brackets for extra support.

Here I am getting cozy driving home with some trim. Which we didn’t use because 1x2s ended up looking better.

It only took a day to frame and install the shelves.

MDF soaks up primer. I had to use two coats of Zinsser. I should have primed them before we put them up.

Beautiful painted shelves! Almost done! Now just to poly the shelves and paint the rest of the pantry!

Meanwhile the kitchen has looked like this all week.

But when your pantry looks this glorious, it doesn’t matter.

When we sell the house, I think I will miss the pantry the most.

We were working so hard for so long that when we finally finished I just wanted to sit in front of the TV with a glass of wine. The power went out all night instead. But this was a cool sight to see during the storm.

A while ago I bought a membership to the Atlanta History Center. I have been wanting to go for several years, and when they offered half-off prices ($32 for me and a guest to go as often as I want for a year), I thought, even if I go once with a friend (and kids under 3 are free) I’ll make my money back, so I went for it.

Walter and I were supposed to be on our way to Miami this weekend, but unfortunately my niece, and now my brother, are terribly sick so we canceled our trip. I decided to use this opportunity to finally visit AHC and tour the gardens, since I always like new ways to get Walter outside (and not just sitting in our front yard playing with sidewalk chalk). Well, it was really awesome. I’m a huge fan of history (for example my B.S. in History from Georgia Tech), and I love Southern history too. They have a very elaborate exhibit on the Civil War (which I’ll have to check out another time), but Walter and I loved the Smith Family Farm. Walter ran around and around, lost his shoe, and made friends with the goats. They have character actors there and that was really fun, like just walking into the past. And I love learning little tidbits like, the Smiths were really rich because they had windows. This was the 1840s after all.

A quick photo on our way out. He wanted to get out of the stroller and run around some more, but I wanted lunch.

The other cool outdoor place we visited this time around was the Swan House, which has recently been made more famous by the movie Catching Fire. While the Smith Family Farm was transported here from the Druid Hills area, the AHC was built around the Swan House when the last owner died and donated it and the surrounding 28 acres to the historical society.

For the movie.

In real life.

Having just watched most of Ken Burns’ Prohibition documentary, it was very cool to be transported to a real 1920’s house with all original furniture and more character actors — which the Center calls “Interpreters”. At the Swan House they told me I wasn’t allowed to bring my carriage (stroller) inside. I was almost confused, except I was already looking for a place to leave it on the cobblestone driveway.

Walter was quick to start exploring.

Playing in the nursery.

Whenever we go somewhere I usually only have a quick moment to look around, because, hey, I’m with a toddler. And you generally aren’t allowed to touch things in museums and other historical properties, which Walter loves to do. Before I snapped this picture Walt was as fascinated with the wicker toilet as I was.